The present invention relates to a cellular phone for use in a radio communication system capable of radio communication among a plurality of countries through roaming.
As one of communication protocols for cellular phones, xe2x80x9ccdmaOne (registered trademark)xe2x80x9d is adopted in Japan, the United States of America, Canada, Korea, China, etc. In the near future, international roaming is scheduled to be provided for the cellular phones among these counties. Under this radio communication system, users of the cellular phones will be enabled to use them in other countries, when they make an overseas travel from Japan to the United States of America.
Overseas travelers are required to use different languages, currencies and the like of other countries where they travel. The overseas travelers may use electronic language translation devices to overcome language barrier. However, the travelers must change the setting of the translation device to produce a corresponding language or use a different translation device in a different country.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a cellular phone which is usable in other countries for automatically converting various data.
According to the present invention, a cellular phone is programmed to automatically convert language or currency of a home country into corresponding language or currency of different countries. When the cellular phone is used in the country in which the same communication protocol as that in the home country and the international roaming are available, the cellular phone determines from a received county ID code where it is used. It automatically performs various conversions such as language conversion or currency conversion with reference to a stored language dictionary or a retrieved currency exchange rate, respectively. Thus, travelers are enabled to use the cellular phone to communicate in different languages or shop in different currencies without any barrier.